Fewer Doctors Have Ownership Stake In Their Practices

Less than half of “patient care” physicians have an ownership stake in their practices as doctors go to work for somebody else amid unprecedented healthcare industry consolidation, Forbes writes.

A new analysis from the American Medical Association is a good sign for those like UnitedHealth Group’s Optum health services business and hospital operators like HCA Holdings Tenet Healthcare and large nonprofit health systems. These larger systems are buying more physician practices, particularly primary and ambulatory surgical care providers.

More doctors are taking jobs or selling their practices to larger entities to gain leverage against insurance companies who pay them.

Physicians also find its more difficult to access capital without the help of a larger partner to fund investments in necessary health information technology needed to comply with the coming quality measures under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, also known as MACRA.

The share of “patient care” physicians with an ownership stake in their practices dipped to 47% in 2016 compared to 53.2% in 2012, the AMA’s analysis on practice arrangements shows. Meanwhile, the share of employed physicians jumped to 47% in 2016 from 41.8% in 2012.

“We have watched employment trends of physicians grow exponentially over the years, especially within the past five to seven years, as placement rates of employed physicians have skyrocketed and placement rates of physicians into private practice settings have declined,” said Andrea Clement, spokeswoman for The Medicus Firm, a national recruiting firm since 2001.

Almost 65%, of doctors under age 40 were employees in 2016.

That compares to 51% in 2012, the AMA report said.

Also driving the move to employment is the shift from fee-for-service medicine to value-based care that bases payment on outcomes and the quality of care delivered. Increasingly, doctors find themselves joining larger entities as a team-based approach takes hold in the U.S. healthcare system.

“In order to be paid, to comply with quality measures and to compete for large patient populations, physicians today are almost compelled to embrace the employed model,” says Mark Smith, president of MerrittHawkins, a physician staffing company and part of AMN Healthcare.

“The truly independent physician who does his or her own hiring, owns or leases the practice’s equipment and building and is responsible for balancing the book is an anachronism.”

Fewer Doctors Have Ownership Stake In Their Practices - overview

Summary: Less than half of “patient care” physicians have an ownership stake in their practices as doctors go to work for somebody else amid unprecedented healthcare industry consolidation.

Consider the life of a chef on the road. Even when they’re not doing “research” for an upcoming project—trips that are essentially designed for overeating and drinking—they’re still likely seeking the best of what got them into the industry in the first place: damn good food.

The proliferation of low-cost airlines flying out of the U.S. means that it’s now possible to hop to Europe for as low as half the price charged by major carriers, the New York Times writes. But there’s always a trade-off — and it pays to comparison-shop, according to the publication.

Featured Contributors

Chasing snake oil and fad gurus is harmless until your journey of personal discovery becomes a platform for prescribing therapies to complete strangers. Any reasonably diligent venture capital partner should be weighing the risks.

Shkreli — who famously insulted members of Congress earlier this year but refused to testify officially over his own decision to increase the price of a life-saving pill — is now hopping at the chance to defend generic drug manufacturer Mylan.
He may even have opened the door to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, where he previously cited his Fifth Amendment's right to avoid incriminating himself.
"Any chance i can come through this time and actually testify?" he tweeted Thursday in a post directed at the committee's Democrats.
All of this now paves an unlikely new friendship between Shkreli and Mylan CEO Heather Bresch.
Heather Bresch created about $15 billion in value for Mylan in the seven years since she stepped up as president of the company. A big part of that value add came from her talent for repackaging off-the-shelf drugs into bona fide blockbusters.

Donald Trump is talking about Hillary Clinton’s health, as are two doctors who havenever evaluated Clinton. They have apparently diagnosed her with all kinds of ailments using the long disproven Fox-Drudge equation.
This attention on Clinton has renewed some interest in the letter Donald Trump released last year from his personal physician.

Even as doctors enter a medical field with more paying patients under the Affordable Care Act and unprecedented numbers of job opportunities, 25 percent of “newly trained physicians” would still choose another field if they could, according to a new analysis.